After two weeks of workshops in January, three and a half weeks of rehearsal, and four shows, the 2009 running of Tapestry New Opera Works' Opera To Go is now finished after a successful run and some good reviews. Disclosure: I was less than truthful about the number of operas offered on the program. There were not four operas on the program, as previously mentioned, but five! The reason that the fifth opera (Ken Gass and Jack Perla's Betty Box Office) was not officially listed was that it was performed guerrilla-style in the box office area of the lobby 20 minutes before show time, featuring Sally Dibble as a disgruntled box office associate and a cameo appearance by Tapestry Managing Artistic Director Wayne Strongman, playing himself (with his lines sung by Peter McGillivray, embedded in the audience behind a newspaper). Although rumors of the mystery fifth opera circulated during the run of the show, it was nevertheless a pleasure to see the looks of wonder come across audience members watching an opera happen unannounced right before their eyes.
Anyway, here are the reviews of the show so far, which I'll add to as more are published in the next few days:
Tamara Bernstein in the Globe and Mail (who erroneously listed the name of the company as Tapestry Theatre)
Jon Terauds in the Toronto Star (who erroneously stated that the Opera To Go program was on hiatus last year--it most definitely was not)
Hey there, just a quick note that the Mooney on Theatre article was actually by one of my writers - Ryan Oakley.
ReplyDeleteThanks--Ryan was not credited as the author of the article in Mooney on Theatre. Post has been updated.
ReplyDelete